Letters page
Legislators know and polling proves that citizens do not support the idea of legitimizing the presence of people here illegally.
None of the 10 states that offer driver cards or licenses to illegal immigrants has ever given voters a choice on the matter.
Oregon is the only state with the opportunity to vote on whether to grant state-issued ID (in the form of driver cards) to people illegally in our country.
We're fortunate to have the opportunity to vote no on Measure 88 for many reasons.
• Contrary to our opponents' claims, car insurance is not required to get a driver card. Car insurance goes with the car – not the driver card.
• Contrary to our opponents' claims, driver card applicants are not likely to purchase car insurance. Illegal immigrants can purchase car insurance now and most often choose not to. A state-issued ID will not change that.
• Most concerning of all (and in direct refutation of claims by our opponents) the TSA has confirmed that an Oregon driver card could be used to board a commercial airliner.
Protect Oregon Driver Licenses and the Sheriffs of Oregon PAC urge a no vote on Ballot Measure 88.
Recent reports of ISIS terrorists coming across the southern border should not be a surprise to anyone.
After all, thousands of people illegally cross the border every day and President Obama seems pleased to see them coming. But when ISIS jihadists first enter the country from Mexico, they'll quickly discover there are only a handful of states that will grant them legal driving privileges.
If Gov. John Kitzhaber and the Democrats in the Oregon Legislature had their way, Oregon would have been one of those states, but an organization called Oregonians For Immigration Reform has stopped them cold. OFIR gathered signatures and put a referendum on the November ballot that will stop the implementation of a law enacted in 2013 to extend driving privileges to illegal aliens in Oregon.
Gov. Kitzhaber and the Democrats must be fuming and gnashing their teeth at the thought of not being able to issue driving cards to ISIS terrorists, but their efforts will be thwarted if Oregon voters stand up and vote no on Measure 88 in November. It's a simple thing the average citizen can do to make Oregon a safer place to live.
In April 2013, when Oregon lawmakers passed Senate Bill 833 granting driver cards to illegal immigrants, “their intent was clear ... to make the state’s roads safer for all Oregonians,” editorialized The Register-Guard in its endorsement of Measure 88 (“Approve driver card measure,” Sept. 14).
What “their intent was not,” the editorial asserted, was “to undermine federal immigration laws or to turn Oregon into a magnet for undocumented workers who would take jobs away from legal residents and siphon public resources.”
Intent — especially that of a 90-member Legislature — is a hard thing to divine. What is “clear,” however, is this: If voters approve Measure 88, what the editorial said lawmakers intended driver cards to do is unlikely to happen, and what it said they did not intend them to do is almost certain to happen.
The editorial claims that Measure 88 “would almost certainly reduce the number of uninsured drivers on the state’s roads.”
Would it? “Liability insurance is not a requirement for ... the proposed driver card that is under Senate Bill 833/Ballot Measure 88,” writes David House of the Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division.
Notes the Federation for American Immigration Reform: “What is mistakenly assumed is that illegal aliens, who generally are low-income, have the cash available to acquire auto insurance... . While a few illegal aliens may be willing and able to buy insurance,” their numbers would not likely be sufficient “to significantly reduce the number of uninsured drivers.”
Before the 2008 passage of Senate Bill 1080, which required Oregon license applicants to prove legal U.S. presence, illegal immigrants were routinely licensed to drive. And yet, according to a January 2013 report by Oregon DMV administrator Tom McClellan, “Four years after implementing a legal presence requirement in Oregon, changes in driver licensing requirements have not had a major impact on the rate of unlicensed and uninsured driving.”
So it is dubious to assert, as the editorial did, that public safety is “the prism through which voters should view Measure 88.” Here are the real “prisms” through which voters should view the measure:
The rule of law. “A stable, harmonious society depends on the law’s consistent application to both citizens and non-citizens,” writes Cynthia Kendoll, president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform. “A government that enforces laws on its citizens, but bends laws to accommodate those here illegally, will invite the contempt of both.”
Oregon does not exist in a vacuum. It has responsibilities to the nation of which it is a part. One of those responsibilities is to not take actions that reward lawbreakers and would, as FAIR says, “frustrate .... the purposes and objectives of federal immigration law.”
Jobs. Today in Oregon, according to the state Employment Department, more than 200,000 U.S. citizens and legal residents are either jobless or “involuntary part-time workers.” Concurrently, FAIR has estimated, more than 120,000 illegal immigrants may hold Oregon jobs — jobs that driver cards would better enable them to take and keep.
Overwhelmingly, illegal immigrants take lower-wage jobs in fields such as food services, construction, building maintenance and groundskeeping — jobs occupied disproportionately by young, minority and low-skilled Americans. For many of these Americans, such jobs provide their families’ main support; for others, they provide crucial supplemental income. They offer young people who are new to the job market experience in adult responsibility. Such jobs are likely to offer many of our long-term unemployed a step back into the working world. And far from being “dead-end” jobs, many of them provide the first rung on the ladder to higher-paying supervisory and managerial work.
Oregonians should reject the driver cards that would better enable illegal immigrants to compete with our economically vulnerable fellow citizens for much-needed jobs.
Illegal immigrants’ fiscal burden on Oregonians. “Contrary to the claims of opponents,” asserted the editorial, “undocumented immigrants play a vital role in the state’s economy.”
Do they? In late 2012, FAIR calculated that Oregon’s then-estimated 170,000 illegal immigrants and their 64,000 U.S.-born children used more than $1 billion a year of state and local government services, but paid only $77 million a year in state and local taxes. Their annual cost to each of Oregon’s U.S.-citizen-headed households: $728. More illegal immigrants attracted by driver cards would mean more money extracted from Oregon taxpayers to fund the services those illegal immigrants and their children consume.
To conclude: Driver cards would do little if anything to increase the number of insured drivers. They would, however, undermine the rule of law, better enable illegal immigrants to take jobs from Oregonians, and add to the already-substantial fiscal burden they impose on the state’s taxpayers.
The choice is clear. Reject driver cards for illegal immigrants with a “no” vote on Measure 88.
Richard LaMountain was a chief petitioner for the Measure 88 referendum.
Thank you to The Bulletin for letting us know that Jodie Barram supports Measure 88, the ballot measure that would provide special driver cards to illegal immigrants.
Evidently Barram thinks it is good for Oregon to hand out driver cards to any illegal immigrant who can come up with little more than a utility bill. With this kind of thinking, Barram isn’t qualified to run a lemonade stand, let alone Deschutes County.
To support Measure 88, which would allow Oregon to give “driver cards” to people who can’t prove they have the legal right to be in the U.S., you have to believe, among other things, that most illegal immigrants in the state don’t drive.
We’ve not seen any compelling evidence that this is true.
Most generally, people don’t defy U.S. immigration laws unless they have a job here. Most people drive to work. Given that nobody denies that thousands of illegal immigrants are working today in Oregon, it’s beyond dispute that many of those workers, and probably most of them, are already driving, license or not.
The argument proffered by Measure 88 proponents, that the issue of driver’s cards is an economic one, that businesses will suffer if the measure fails because their workers won’t be able to get to work, falls far short of compelling.
Measure 88 proponents also contend that giving these workers a government-approved card would encourage them to buy insurance.
But here’s the thing: Drivers are already required by law to maintain valid insurance. Only the supremely naive would blithely assume that people who flout one law — federal immigration — would definitely comply with another — buying driver’s insurance.
It’s hardly a revelation, of course, that America’s enforcement of its immigration laws is less than robust.
But there’s no good reason for Oregon voters to thumb their noses at those laws by rewarding immigrants who refuse to follow the well-worn path leading to full U.S. citizenship and all the rights and privileges — including driving, among the latter — that citizenship confers.
The In My View opinion Sept. 18 by Marilyn Burwell on Measure 88 glosses over some realities regarding auto insurance and driver’s licenses and the hoped-for driver cards. Insurance is not required to obtain a driver’s license, nor would it be for the hoped-for driver cards. Nothing compels a driver wanting a license or card to obtain any insurance, period. But it would be nice if it were a compulsory requirement.
Vehicles are required to be insured, not the driver. Consider all of the uninsured vehicles on the road, the fact that they are there does not increase nor decrease safety on the road. Many vehicles cross state lines both ways; who keeps track? Many carry contraband. Simply put, insurance does not make you safe. Consider how it is practiced that drivers borrow, perhaps steal cars, or how owners lend their cars out to friends and relatives.
Most cars are insured, of course, already. Consider how an individual can acquire a fleet of clunkers and insure them all at a discounted bulk rate with the express purpose of loaning them out for free or a fee. You might call this person an enabler. A driver card will not make anyone safer. Measure 88, it’s not about safety. You know what it’s about; vote no on 88.
“Immigrant families illegally in U.S. fail to report as ordered,” a Sept. 26 article reported. What a shock!
Did anyone seriously believe the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who recently flooded across our southern border would later show up to meet with federal immigration agents?
They’re staying, and joining the 11 million illegal immigrants already here. Some will come to Oregon, where Gov. John Kitzhaber is reported to have said they’ll be “welcomed with open arms.”
The governor and Lane County’s Democratic legislators want us to pass Measure 88 on Nov. 4 to help the immigrants by giving them driver cards. So do Oregon employers who hire illegal immigrants to work for low wages.
The state Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division found “no major difference” in the number of unlicensed and uninsured drivers prior to 2008 — when illegal immigrants could get driver’s licenses — and the later period when they cannot. Measure 88 would do nothing for “road safety” as claimed.
All Measure 88 would do, if passed, is lure more illegal immigrants to Oregon, where they will continue to take jobs, increase classroom sizes, put further strain on social safety nets and help keep a lid on wages. Vote “no” on Measure 88.
Editor’s note: Because she reported on the driver-card issue for Friday’s Argus Observer, Assistant Editor Leslie Thompson has recused herself from this editorial.
In a little over a month, Oregon voters will decide the fate of Measure 88, which upholds four-year driver cards for people who cannot prove they are legal U.S. citizens.
It’s an issue with passionate supporters and opponents. The Argus editorial board heard this week from four people who urged our support for the driver card. They made some good points, but at this time, we can’t endorse the cards.
Jeff Stone, executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries, and Matt Swanson, executive director of Service Employees International Union Oregon State Council, addressed the editorial board via conference call. They said that while the driver card issue stems from the federal government’s failure to address immigration reform — a fact they both lamented — the driver card is really about public safety, not immigration.
We don’t argue the fact that requiring everyone to pass written and practical exams before hitting the road makes Oregon’s highways safer. Tim Cable, from Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, further pointed out that driving in Mexico, where many of our immigrants come from, is culturally much different than driving in the United States. Requiring those who’ve moved here to learn America’s rules of the road would make our roads less dangerous.
But we can’t completely separate the driver card issue from the broader immigration issue. This card is specifically for people who cannot prove they are here legally.
Because of that, we wonder how many people would take advantage of the cards. Swanson estimated 80,000 people would benefit from the cards immediately. But if they are in this country illegally, why would they get a card that announces to all and sundry they are here without authorization? Why not just continue driving illegally? Which is the greater risk?
The United States is generous to immigrants. We are a nation of immigrants, and we have always welcomed people with open arms. It’s right there on the Statue of Liberty, quoting Ezra Lazarus’ “The New Colossus”: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Yet somehow, even with our melting pot background, we are one country. We may welcome everyone, but we ask them to become Americans.
We agree the path to citizenship is difficult, and the immigration system needs reform. That does not, however, mean we should circumvent it or ignore it altogether, which is what the driver cards do. Why should the state of Oregon provide a legal driving option to people who are here illegally? Driving may be necessary, particularly in rural areas like ours, but make no mistake: It is a privilege, not a right.
Our view is based on the consensus opinions of the Argus Observer editorial board. Members of the board are Publisher John Dillon, Editor Kristi Albertson, and community member John Taggart.
The action by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and the state Legislature on Senate Bill 833 last year granting some form of Oregon driver's license, called a driver's card, to foreign nationals illegally present in the state, passed in part under the pretense that the legislation was a matter of public safety...
But the law is disconnected from the reality of driving in our state, considering the previous dangers illegal immigrant drivers have posed to Oregonians...
Here are seven victims whose lives were extinguished violently and prematurely by those illegally present that chose to drive their motor vehicles impaired and recklessly.
Judyth Anne Cox, a 66-year-old wife and mother of two, was killed in Yamhill County on Dec. 3, 2007, by Mexican national Ignacio Merendon-Zerega. He had six prior DUIIs. Merendon-Zerega had no driver's license or insurance.
Carma Colleen Smith, a 52-year-old wife and mother of seven, was killed in Yamhill County on May 11, 2008, (Mothers Day) by Mexican national Leonel Zurita-Loeza. He was on a diversion for a previous DUII at the time he killed Smith. Zurita-Loeza had a driver's license but no insurance.
Justin Daniel Dougherty, a 23-year-old single father of one, was killed in Lane County on March 4, 2008, by Mexican national Eduardo Gutierrez-Duarte. He had a previous DUII in 2004. Gutierrez-Duarte had a driver's license but no insurance.
Kay Blaser, a 26-year-old mother of one, was killed in Clackamas County on Oct. 12, 2008 by Mexican national Fernando Deanda-Moreno. He had no driver's license or insurance.
Barbara Jean Bier, a 52-year-old wife and mother of seven, was killed in Polk County on Nov. 21, 2008, by Martin Martinez-Aguilar, who had a driver's license but no insurance.
Albert Lloyd Rowland, a 53-year-old homeless man, was killed in Multnomah County on May 13, 2010, by Mexican national Alvaro Lugos-Ponce, who had no driver's license or insurance.
John Zupan (founder of Zupan's Markets), a 66-year-old father of two, was killed in Multnomah County on Aug. 30, 2011, by Mexican national Edy Porfirio Reynoso-Ramirez. He had no driver's license or insurance.
Oregon voters concerned about future public safety of the state's roads can stop SB833 from becoming state law on Nov. 4, during the 2014 Oregon general election, by voting "no" on Measure 88.
David Olen Cross of Salem writes on immigration issues and foreign national crime. He can be reached at docfnc@yahoo.com.
It’s getting really hard to read The Register-Guard when it promotes illegal immigrant driver cards.
The Sept. 14 editorial (“Approve driver card measure”) only encourages more immigrants to come to the United States illegally.
It appears the editors need to get a dictionary so they can look up the meaning of the word illegal. Political correctness is going to destroy our country if it’s not forcefully countered.
